New-Yorker Stadt-Theater Opera: Die Zauberfl�te

“Full Chorus and Orchestra. Popular prices.”

“Mr. H. Grau’s German Opera Company will sing ‘Die Zauberflöte’ (‘The Magic Flute’) at the Stadt Theatre this evening, thus following up the success of the Maretzek troupe last night. The great basso Hermanns, Pfluger the tenor, Madame Pauline Canissa, Madame Schram-Rolf and other prominent singers will sustain the principal parts.”

“‘Il Flauto Magico,’ in its transit from Twenty-third street and Eighth avenue to the lower Bowery, becomes ‘Die Zauberflöete [sic],’ and the phenomenal genius exhibited at the former place in the principal characters disappearing in the journey, the parts in the opera are found by the visitor at the German house to be more evenly distributed.

The ‘loges,’ the ‘orchester sitz,’ the ‘parquette-sperrsitz,’ and the many nooks and corners of the spacious Stadt Theatre were filled, last evening, by an audience of intelligent and music-loving Teutons, who heard, with never-wearying admiration, the sweet airs of Mozart. Fraulein Pauline Canissa, who sang Pamina, received from her first entrance their heartiest applause, and Fraulein Romer’s staccato notes in the two arias of the Königin der Nacht awakened their enthusiasm. Pflüger’s Tamino was in accordance with the German taste, and the singing of the priests, the three mysterious ladies, and the very ladylike boys gave genuine satisfaction. But it remained for Herr Lehmann as Papageno, and Frau Schramm-Rolff as Papagena to rouse their auditors to audible praises, and to bring forth cheers from the dimly seen, but plainly heard upper tiers of the immense building. The comic duet, ‘Pa-Pa-Papageno’ was given with a vim rarely exhibited by our native players, and the voices of both performers were heard to advantage.

The Sarastro of Herr Hermann’s was considered the principal feature of the performance, but more than a reference to the powerful voice of the popular basso is unnecessary. The orchestra last evening, under the direction of Carl Schramm was adequate to the demands of Mozart’s music, and the chorus, though not large, was well trained and satisfactory.”